Imperial China and ROC

China is the oldest continuous major world civilization, with records dating back about 3,500 years. Successive dynasties developed a system of bureaucratic control that gave the agrarian-based Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic and hill cultures.

During the 19th century, the last dynasty of China, Qing’s control was shaken by massive civil rebellions. In the last 60 years 19 Century, China lost four short wars with Western powers, two times with British, one time with Japan and one time with the union of 8 new world powers. As their consequences, China paid heavy penalty to those foreign powers, ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain and Macao to Portugal, as well as many lands to Russia, Japan, Germany and France.

Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, followed 17 years of political turmoil and civil wars between various warlords. Manchuria, which is in North Eastern China, was occupied by Japan in 1931. Japanese invaded China in 1937 and the anti Japanese occupation war lasted 8 years. After the WWII, China experienced another four years of civil war, resulted in two political entities: the People's Republic of China (PRC), administering mainland China, and the Republic of China (ROC), administering Taiwan and its surrounding islands. China remains one of two countries in the world which is split by political difference.